South-west England including Glastonbury, Boscastle and Tintagel.

June 17th and 18th was spent exploring and travelling down the south-west coast of England.  We left Shepton-Mallet and travelled down through Somerset to Glastonbury where this is a Tor with a tower on it overlooking the town.  A tor is a hill and in King Arthurs time Churches or towers were built on these sites as lookouts.  This tower of St Michael is one of the few remaining.

Glastonbury Tor with Tower.

Debbie and Tessa were keen to climb up to it. I went most of the way but left the final uphill ascent to them.

We continued on through Glastonbury and passed the huge farm site that was being prepared for the upcoming Glastonbury Festival, 3 days of concert for young and old !!!  175,000 people camped and attended the festival which is sold out a year in advance.  There were hundreds of tents, fences and toilets etc already erected on the site.  I was glad were weren't a week later !!

We said good-bye to the motorways and continued up and on down country roads and lanes, very picturesque and the countryside changing from rolling hills with woods and tree-lined roads to more open spaces with less trees as we got near the coast.  We entered Exmoor National Park with the windswept landscape and heather (Wuthering Heights country) and immediately encountered the small wild ponies (but not too wild !!).

We continued on the coast along the Bristol Channel which was brown, not blue due to the muddy water coming down from the River Severn and drove through Lynmouth and Lyton, seaside towns on the coast, very picturesque and favourite holiday spots, through Bideford and Bude to the village of Boscastle in North Cornwall.  This village is on the coast and very picturesque and is in a narrow valley.  It is adjacent to Tintagel and the ruins of the Tintagel Castle.  We had a quick look around the village, but as we were limited for time as the only accommodation we could get at a reasonable price was a B & B on a farm at Boyton, approx. 45 mins inland from Boscastle, decided to head for there and come back to Boscastle the next day as Debs and Tessa thought they may walk the 4 and a half miles along the coast from Boscastle to Tintagel in the morning if the weather was fine.

Bradridge B & B.

After a goodnights sleep (and a room to myself !!) and a huge breakfast at Bradridge B & B on a sheep and cattle farm consisting of 200 acres and a fine sunny day, we got to Boscastle early, had a look around before proceeding to walk down to the harbour and to the start of the track to Tintagel.

Boscastle looking up the valley.

Debs and Tessa continued on the track, I walked with them for a short distance and saw the views of the coast.

Tessa with a pony with the Boscastle Harbour entrance in the background.

The coast just south of Boscastle, Tessa on the rock.  The coastline they walked down was like this most of the way.

I continued to walk around the Forrabury "stitches", one of the best preserved examples of a medieval strip farming system in England.  You can see all the ridges in the paddocks still, around to the Forrabury Church and back through the Boscastle township to the adjacent Boscastle village which is in the Valency Valley.

View of the Forrabury "stitches" an example of medieval farming.

Boscastle traces its roots back to the Iron Age.  The safe harbour had been used for years and the inner harbour breakwater was rebuilt in the late 16th century.  By the early 19th century, it had become an important coastal trading centre with hundreds of ships a year visiting the secluded harbour, off-loading and collecting important cargoes such as fish, slate and lime.

View of Boscastle Harbour, mainly fishing boats now, looking up towards the village.

Entrance to Boscastle Harbour.

Normally a quiet backwater, Boscastle was propelled into the news in 2004 when a dramatic flash flood destroyed livelihoods and property, miraculously no-one was killed in the devastating summer storm and flood.  (I read somewhere that it made the main item on the news in NZ that day!!) At midday on the 16th August 2004, heavy thundery showers had developed across the south-west of England and a heavy sudden cloudburst in the Valency River catchment emptied over 2 million tonnes of water through the valley that day.  The Valency River breached its banks at about 3.30 pm and by 4 pm a 10ft wall of floodwater rode through the Boscastle carpark at an estimated speed of 40 mph, the footbridge was washed away and by 5 pm the flood was approaching its peak, cars were being washed out of the carpark, the Visitor Centre building collapsed and people climbed onto the roof of buildings or ran up the hill if they could to get out of the rising water.  7 helicopters airlifted 100 people to safety (they could only operate one at a time as the valley is so narrow), 1,000 people were affected, 58 properties were flooded, 4 of which were demolished and 84 wrecked cars were recovered from Boscastle's harbour and streets, 32 could still be out at sea !!

The Valency River, how it is now as it flows through the Boscastle village.

A view of the Valency valley as it is now.

This house, a restaurant, was demolished in the flood and has been rebuilt as it was since and continues to be used as previous as a restaurant.

The community rallied and after a huge regeneration and rebuilding project the village became once again a must-visit destination.  After another stroll around the village I drove the car over the hill and the 4 miles to Tintagel to meet Tessa and Debs.

Tintagel is a picturesque town known for its coastline, rugged cliffs, coastal paths and sandy bays, plus Tintagel Castle Ruins.

The main street of Tintagel.

As it was going to take the walkers 3 - 4 hours before they would reach Tintagel, I took a walk along part of the coast going south and visited the St Materiana Church. It was built between 1080 and 1150 in the time of the first Norman Earls of Cornwall and appears entirely the same today.  It was not open to have a look inside.

St Materiana Church, still being used as a Parish Church today.

I continued walking around the coast and met the walkers as arranged just past the Tintagel Castle.

Barras Nose on track between Boscastle and Tintagel just beyond Tintagel Castle.

Tintagel Castle is the ruins of the castle made famous by King Arthur of the Round Table, dates back to the Romans and is believed to be the birthplace of King Arthur.   It is situated on Tintagel Island and is connected by a swingbridge to the mainland.

Notice about King Arthur and his birthplace.  (Not very clear).

View of the ruins of Tintagel Castle on Tintagel Island and the track and swingbridge to it.  The main ruins are at the top on the left.

The rest of Tintagel Island with ruins at the top and on the side.  There are walkways all over it.

View of Tintagel Castle and Island from the track on the other side.

Instead of going up in and around the ruins of the castle,  Merlins Cave, to the right of the Castle Beach was explored, just below the castle ruins.  Merlin was King Arthur's teacher and its said he lived in this cave.

Castle Beach just below the Tintagel Castle on the left of the photo and Merlins Cave is on the right centre on the beach.  Tessa is the white dot on the rock in the centre of the beach.  You can only get to Merlin's Cave at low tide.

We walked back up to the Tintagel village to have lunch, I had the famous scones, strawberry jam, clotted cream and tea !!!

Scones, strawberry jam, clotted cream and tea !

As we were to meet Mo's parents and sister and her husband (Mo is my sister-in-law, living over here for 5 months) for dinner that night on the edge of the New Forest, just outside Southampton, it was onto the Motorway, up to 4 lanes wide at times and despite some heavy crawling traffic, we reached our destination as nominated and on time, but only just !!!  We had a lovely time with Jean and Bob and Jill and her husband Chris.  It was easily 20 years since I had last saw Jean and Bob in NZ and it was great to catch up with stories and memories and how all the family is doing.

After a night at a basic hotel in Southampton it was up early on June 20th to visit Mo and her brother, Roger, on his market garden property, just outside Petersfield.  He has 27 acres growing strawberries, asparagus, broad beans and many other vegetables at this time of the year which are available for self-picking or selling at his shop or at the markets.  He also has a multitude of other berries including raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries and many types of fruit and vegetables available throughout the year.  He grows vegetable and flower plants in tunnel houses which he uses for the market garden or for sale in the shop and Mo helps him with these in the summer months coming back to NZ for the summer.  He normally does not have to irrigate but does have pipes if he has to.  We picked some strawberries to eat as we travelled. 

Our stay was too short as we had to leave to get Debs to Gatwick Airport to catch a flight to Iceland where she was going on a photography tour around Iceland for nearly 2 weeks.  Tessa and I continued on the motorway to Milton Keynes to drop off the rental car (arrived 10 minutes after they shut as it was Saturday, we blamed the traffic !!).  I dropped Tessa off at her brother's apartment in Milton Keynes, arranged for the car to be picked up on Monday and caught a train up to Stoke-on- Trent to catch up with Martin and Sue again on the boat.

We had had a fantastic week, saw a lot of places, drove around a lot of narrow tree-lined country roads, ate in local pubs and slept in a variety of accommodation, loved the small villages, cathedrals, majestic historic houses and castles and rugged coast line, did a lot of walking and laughed a lot.